Stone Witnesses to Power : Germany

At the turn of the 10th century Hildesheim (1 06,000 inhabitants) was the center of theOttoman Empire; in the 12th century Bardowick was the most important hub of trade between East and West. Brunswick grew to become one of the four major metropolises of the Late Middle Ages. At the end of the 1 6th century Emden boasted more ships than any other port in Europe; in the 18th century Claus-thal-Zellerfeld in the Harz Mountains was one of the world’s principal industrial centers. Stone witnesses to the past are everywhere: The 900-year-old church in Idesen is considered the most outstanding ecclesiastical structure of its time in Germany.

The world’s largest medieval library, where Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz worked, is located in Wolfenbuttel; Goslar, with its magnificent old townscape, is the site of the Kaiserpfalz, Germany’s largest medieval secular building. Brunswick’s Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum is the oldest art museum on the European continent. Celle is the home of Germany’s oldest theater in which performances are still staged. Notable collections of modern art can be found in the Art Gallery in Emden and the Sprengel Museum of Modern Art in Hanover, whereas Hildesheim’s Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum has a fine collection of Egyptian antiquities. Hanover’s “Violinale” is one of the world’s preeminent violin competitions.